3 local synagogues look to consolidation

Wednesday

Synagogues in Randolph, Stoughton and Brockton have taken the first steps toward unifying in 2014. All have aging, dwindling memberships.

The Conservative synagogues in Randolph, Stoughton and Brockton have begun planning a consolidation that will begin in 2014.

Congregation presidents say that if members at all three synagogues approve the plan, Temple Beth Am in Randolph, Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton and Temple Beth Emunah in Brockton will become “a fourth synagogue” with a new name.

The proposed new congregation would temporarily gather at Temple Beth Emunah beginning in July 2014 and stay there until a new worship center is built elsewhere in the area.

The consolidated congregation would include about 600 families.

With all three congregations gradually getting smaller and older, “we decided, let’s have this conversation now, while we’re all solid and stable,” said Ahavath Torah president David Schulze.

Schulze is chairman of the unification steering committee.

At Beth Am, President Martin Cohne stressed that the plan will unify the congregations, not merge two of them into the third.

“Many temples have made that mistake – waiting too long until they have no say in the temple they join,” he said. “This is an opportunity for all of us to create what that new entity will be.”

Schulze said the three congregations will also suggest possible new names and together agree on the final choice.

The intended consolidation follows a series of moves and closings among several South Shore synagogues in the last few years – most recently in 2012, when Conservative Temple Beth El in Quincy sold its building after 62 years.

That congregation hasn’t decided whether to join another synagogue or continue meeting separately.

In Brockton, Beth Emunah is the last of four synagogues once active in that city. Congregation President Stephen Berlin said having Temple Beth Emunah as the temporary home softens the blow for his members, but there will still be a loss of identity at the 62-year-old temple.

“Most people understand that people can’t go on the way they are,” Berlin said. “We have some people, their parents were founders. ...This is all they’ve ever known.”

Brandeis University professor and American Judaism scholar Jonathan Sarna said it’s no surprise that the Randolph, Stoughton and Brockton synagogues are now looking at consolidation – much as many Roman Catholic parishes and Protestant churches in New England have merged in recent years.

“Conservative congregations have been merging all over (the country),” Sarna said. “The cost advantages ... are enormous.”

If the local unification is approved by congregational votes, the Beth Am and Ahavath Torah properties would be sold in early 2014. Temple Beth Emunah would be sold when the new synagogue is built.

Schulze said the steering committee has just begun surveying the area for sites for the new synagogue. Cohne said the new one will be at a convenient distance for the three existing congregations, but also convenient for young Jewish families who move into the area.

Without those families, “you can’t sustain a congregation,” Cohne said.

Cohne and Schulze said their congregations recognize the financial factor Sarna noted, as well as the age-old principle that Judaism is built on what Schulze called “survivability and sustainability.”

“We have to modernize what we are,” Schulze said. But he said it’s going to be “difficult and personal” for members to leave the places they’ve worshipped for most or all their lives.

“But they’d rather see this (consolidation) happen than the opposite,” he said, referring to closing like Temple Beth El.

The next step comes April 4, when all three congregations vote on whether to accept a “letter of intent” to begin a formal unification. If that is approved, a transitional board of directors would draw up the legal framework. A second series of congregational votes on the official plan would be held by January 2014.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.

READ MORE about South Shore synagogues.

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